there are question marks over the Telangana BJP manifesto, despite senior leaders dropping hints about what it is likely to contain over the past few days, with committee chairman Vivek Venkatswamy keeping away from the exercise and also from the party office of late.
To mollify warring groups, the party leadership formed different committees — agitations, public meetings, election commission, etc., including the 29 member manifesto committee, with the respective chairpersons being a mix of old guard and new entrants into the party last month.
While party seniors claimed to have ensured the peace pipe was smoked between Venkatswamy and his bete noire, election campaign committee chairman Eatala Rajender, he has not been enthusiastically participating in the party activities amid buzz of his jumping on the Congress bandwagon.
Party sources admitted that the manifesto committee did not meet after two preliminary meetings. It is now left to the other members of the panel to prepare the manifesto. Incidentally, most of the ordinary members are all old-timers, and some of them upset over newcomers getting preference have so far refused to attend.
The sulking by veterans has only increased after the first list of 52 candidate names and later, the single name of former MP A.P. Jitender Reddy’s son, Mithun Kumar Reddy, were announced. “The selection criteria has been dubious with no consultations whatsoever with the contenders as an election committee was not formed for the first time. Some of the names were cleared in a hurry because of considerations other than winnability,” remarked a senior leader.
“It is as not as if we do not not have the resources to fight the elections. We have been with the party for decades strengthening it from the grassroots. Can the leadership say turncoats from other parties have strengthened our base? Will they stay if they lose the elections,” asked another leader. They have also demanded the central observers handle funds to “save party cadre”.
A few old-timers have decided not to give up. “We have requested the leadership to consider district presidents of erstwhile Rangareddy district at least for a few seats considering our service, acceptability and to keep the cadre enthused in the second list. The party has been organisationally strong in the district and has been the fulcrum for many agitations,” pointed out a leader.
Ticket contenders among the old-timers include M.Kanta Rao (Kukatpally), Anjan Kumar Goud (Rajendranagar), K.Prakash (Chevella), N.V.S.S. Prabhakar (Uppal), P.Vikram Reddy, and V.Laxma Reddy (both Medchal). Prominent among those denied in the first list from the region include veteran aspirants like S.Malla Reddy (Qutbullapur) and B.Narasimha Reddy (Maheshwaram).
